Practically speaking, is there any difference between an atrium, a mezzanine, a concourse, a lobby, and a narthex?
Other than they are spelled differantly??
Good golly yes! There’s many differences. I don’t have my Penguin Dictionary of Architecture handy, so this is a little off the top of my head but …
Atrium - an enclosed interior space, often spanning several floors.
Mezzanine - an floor located between two floors, often smaller than the footprint of the building. That is:
-------- : second floor
---- : mezzanine
-------- : first floor
Concourse - large corridor, usually connecting transportation elements, often contains retail.
Lobby - The big space you enter first in a building. Often double height. This is usually where the money goes in a commercial building.
Narthex - here I’m not sure, but I know it’s church related. I think its the entry.
Hope that helps.
These words are sometimes used interchangably because a given space can share the characteristics of more than one term as precisely defined. For example, in many buildings the lobby IS an atrium or the concourse IS a mezzanine. When distinctions need to be made, the best guide to precise usage usually comes from looking into their etymology.
atrium - this was originally the main courtyard located behind the street entrance of a Roman house, it would often be surrounded by a covered loggia and feature a central fountain or cistern. (more) The term now usually refers to a large centrally located space in a building that receives daylight from above and off of which the other rooms are arranged. The ubiquitous “atrium hotel” was pioneered in Atlanta by John Portman.
mezzanine - is an Italian word meaning “in the middle” and refers to a smaller floor level between two main floors, such as in an auditorium. Some townhouses have a similar ‘entresol’ which is a plenum space between the first and second floors of a building used for storage and to make up the difference between the ceiling of a smaller room that adjoins a grand salon and the level of the next floor above.
concourse - derives from the latin for ‘to run alongside’ and implies the same relationship to subordinate rooms as for an atrium, but stretched along a path of travel such as a market street or a shopping mall or airport concourse.
lobby - is a much older word. The Latin is ‘lobia’ which has the Germanic root ‘lauba’ which means ‘leaf’ - apparently the sense is from the ‘laubje’ or “lodge” which was built of still-leafy trunks. The word was spread through the Latin world as the term for a monastic cloister. The verb ‘to lobby’ comes from the tendency for political agreements to be made in that locale.
narthex - is from the Greek for ‘box’ (and also for the giant fennel plant) and refers specifically to the portico of a Byzantine Christian church and by extension to the entranceway of any church.
related terms I won’t define unless asked: foyer, cloister, ambulatory, loggia, gallery, court, forecourt, quadrangle, hall, porch, portico, plaza, circus, forum, agora, colonnade, refectory, stoop, vestibule, veranda, anteroom, embouchure, portal, etc.